It is known to provide data processing systems incorporating both main processors and a coprocessor. In some systems it is known to be able to provide one or more different coprocessors with a main processor. In this case, the different coprocessors can be distinguished by different coprocessor numbers.
A coprocessor instruction encountered in the instruction data stream of the main processor is issued on a bus coupled to the coprocessor. The one or more coprocessors (that each have an associated hardwired coprocessor number) attached to the bus examine the coprocessor number field of the instruction to determine whether or not they are the target coprocessor for that instruction. If they are the target coprocessor, then they issue an accept signal to the main processor. If the main processor does not receive an accept signal, then it can enter an exception state to deal with the undefined instruction.
One type of instruction may perform operations on packed data. Such instructions may be referred to as Single-Instruction-Multiple-Data (SIMD) instructions. One set of SIMD instructions was defined for the Pentium® Processor with MMX™ Technology by Intel® Corporation and described in “IA-32 Intel Architecture Software Developer's Manual Volume 2: Instruction Set Reference,” which is available online from Intel Corporation, Santa Clara, Calif. at www.intel.com/design/litcentr.
Some SIMD instructions perform saturating operations on packed data, in which results of an operation, with saturate enabled, may be clamped when they overflow or underflow the range of the data by setting any results to a maximum or minimum value when they exceed the range's maximum or minimum value. Following the execution of such instructions it is not readily apparent if any results were actually saturated.
For some applications, it may be desirable to detect if and where saturation has occurred in such SIMD operations and to take action based upon the detection of said saturation.